Sunday, 19 August 2012

Just to say

It's been a wonderful weekend. Our staycation has started well, and we have surfed, beached, walked, played, and hung out. Tomorrow's agenda includes fishing in the boat, and a National Trust garden - Trelissick maybe. Marc and the boys are relaxed. There is less arguing, and we are hanging out as a family, which I love for obvious reasons. When you have three children that are teen, pre-teen and pre-school it is difficult to cater to all needs. I am plagued with a nagging doubt that I am not paying enough attention to one or the other. I have pledged to myself that this will be the last post until after our jollies. We have put strict limits on all computer based activities for the boys. It's only fair I apply it to myself too!!

Before I do, I wanted to share a couple of tales from the garden.

This spring I planted some sea holly, as part of a plan to attract pollinators into the garden. If you would like to share with your children the amazing world of pollinators of all kinds, I urge you to plant one or two. Not only are they an unusual and beautiful perennial, but the insects adore it. Olly and I counted over twenty different types of bees, butterflies and other pollinators in a very short period of time. It was a joy to be up close watching these creatures feeding and gathering from the plant. Olly and I were fascinated.

The sweet peas are finally starting to flower in profusion, and not a day has gone by this past week that I have collected a bunch in from the garden. They smell wonderful, and have the most amazing colours and shapes. Mine are mostly pink, lilac, cream and purple. Everyone I love will be having a couple of packets in with their Christmas presents this year.

The chicks have started to take themselves to bed instead of knocking on the conservatory windows, and asking me to show them the way. I guess Beryl and Jean are growing up. They now look like small hens, and their cheeping has started to turn into a cluck. I am so glad that I got them. They make me chuckle with their quiet chatter and occasional squabbling.

One final thing. A long held dream has come true. Today a beautiful green dragonfly has been spotted several times in and around the garden. It was very large, and glinted iridescent in the afternoon sunshine. It flitted over my little pond, maybe inspecting it as a suitable place to lay it's eggs. I was giddy with excitement.